Personal Branding

“Your personal brand sets the expectation of an experience with you.”

Is your personal brand working for you … or against you?
You have a brand. It’s your reputation, your legacy. It’s the value you bring to every meeting, each client encounter, and every interview and presentation.

LIDA360 personal branding is a process for actively managing your brand to help you succeed through life’s transitions: Landing a dream job or entering the workforce for the first time; Attracting more referrals, leads and prospects, or ensuring the clients you have stay; Living an authentic life and ensuring your reputation is working in your favor; Becoming a thought leader to change the world. Lida’s insightful and intuitive personal branding and reputation management process is designed to illuminate the path to self-discovery and unearth the unique values, talents and potential of each client, leading to their own powerful personal brand.

A sought-after expert trained in branding, reputation management and social media, with special training in body language, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), image consulting and networking, Lida brings high-level skills and 20 years of experience to the personal branding process, helping clients see themselves and their goals more clearly. Lida believes that if you understand yourself at the core of authenticity, market yourself with intention and focus and strive to walk the talk, you can create a personal brand with immeasurable value.

“Personal branding helps you identify your core values and discover the passion that makes you unique. Then, we market those unique qualities to an audience that must find you relevant and compelling.”

PERSONAL BRANDING CASE STUDIESClark:Twenty years a CEO, now needs to detach his brand from the company

For more than two decades, Clark had been nationally synonymous with a well-known company in his industry. He had authored fourteen books, testified as an industry representative in front of the U.S. Congress, and spoken at more than 200 international events on behalf of the industry and his organization. His well-known name and body of work were regarded as leading edge and as a change agent.

Now, Clark faced retirement from his role. It was time. The organization needed new leadership, and Clark needed a new passion in his life. His successes were well recognized, and the future was truly his to own. He would be working as an industry advocate and visiting scholar at some of the top educational institutions in the world. All his new work would be under his name, not the organization’s. Our challenge was to detach Clark from his company and reinvent his personal reputation in the eighteen months before he left the helm.

In doing so, we created unique and compelling messaging and a targeted set of goals. He had earned recognition, albeit under the company name, but would now need to leverage his familiarity to create new opportunities.

After carefully considering his authentic personal brand assets, the key audiences he enjoyed and had stickiness with, and market opportunities to create change, we began a process of public relations, thought leadership development, and networking to build his individual personal brand. We positioned Clark on the platform at key industry events; we devised a new series of books he would write highlighting his expertise and unique voice; and we positioned Clark in key leadership roles within non-profit entities around the world that furthered his passion and his mission.

The result is that today Clark is well known and regarded for his individual contribution to the industry and has the respect of peers and fellow thought leaders. His reputation management program effectively continues to gain him desired visibility to move his vision forward.

Aimee:Struggling with Asian cultural boundaries in marketing to the U.S.

Aimee, originally from Singapore, was an accomplished account executive in the tourism industry. She had been personally responsible for major campaigns and initiatives to attract tourist interest and dollars to areas such as the Middle East and Singapore. Now based in Abu Dhabi, Aimee wanted to pursue similar job opportunities in the U.S. tourism market and realized she had cultural norms to overcome in learning how to market herself effectively in America.

We worked together on her personal branding over Skype (much as I would have loved to travel to the Middle East!) and quickly identified several of the issues with which she struggled. Aimeeʼs issues were common to other clients, many whom are Asian executives with which Iʼve worked. They all had strong cultural connections to navigate when amplifying their personal brand power.

First, Aimee needed to embrace a “self-focusing” approach to positioning herself. She was raised with the understanding that the team/company/community/family is more important than the individual. While this is valid, the premise of personal branding begins with a deep understanding and appreciation for the unique qualities of the individual, not the team, and what that individual has to offer to the team, company, community and family.

I helped Aimee see that putting her needs and values out front enabled her to understand how she could add value to the organization. This is a good thing! This makes the company and the community better. She learned that focusing first on herself meant she was able to contribute at a higher level.

Next, we looked at how we could package and promote Aimee’s unique qualities and skills in a way that differentiated her from her competitors. She was now competing in an American marketplace, where terminology, reputation and skills are very important.

We needed to package her international experience in a way that created a unique value proposition and made her stand apart. This kind of “self-promotion” was foreign to Aimee and made her uncomfortable at times.

We spent a lot of time understanding the functional and emotional needs of her American audiences. Through research, interviews, discussion and surveys, we learned what we needed to do to meld her audiences’ needs and her abilities and experience in a marketing approach.

Our targeted and focused strategy meant she would position herself more effectively and proactively, projecting confidence and humility at the same time. Contrary to her previous approach of sending resumes and waiting, we were now going on the offensive and marketing Aimee as a unique asset who was highly sought after.

Aimee is a very authentic, approachable person, and when she saw how her genuineness could still shine through while she aggressively marketed herself, she felt more empowered and in control of her job search process. At the time of this writing, Aimee is considering whether the move to the U.S. is, in fact, her passion. Either way, she is designing a legacy and reputation for herself that is authentic and compelling, in whatever country she decides to call home.

Richard:Positioning his reputation in a new industry

Richard had spent the previous thirty years as a high-profile finance executive, raising funds as a venture capitalist and investing in a specific technology industry niche. Numerous international media outlets profiled his unprecedented success and business acumen and labeled him a “pioneer” and “innovator.” Notable conglomerates had acquired each of his portfolio companies, and his net worth reflected his success. He seemed to have a sort of venture capitalist Midas touch.

Five years ago, Richard and his family traveled to the Third World, and he was personally touched by the devastation and depletion of natural resources there. Richard returned to the U.S. and began exploring and understanding the sustainability field and the opportunities for both investment and impact to sustainability.

When I met Richard, his question was: How do I turn my professional focus to align with my growing personal focus? If he moved too quickly in the direction of his new passion, he could lose the faith of investors and colleagues whose money he was responsible for managing.

In our personal branding work, we discussed the passion/differentiation/brand asset piece of Richard’s personal branding first. Clarifying and detailing his passion for this new venture was critical. In the VC world, opportunists are everywhere: They sniff out the next best idea and jump on it! For most of his competitors, greed is king and opportunity can represent greed. To Richard, this was a personal calling, not an opportunistic play. It was very important that we not move too swiftly or inauthentically, or colleagues, investors and media could see him as disingenuous.

Instead, we crafted an eighteen-month strategy for Richard. He needed to build a carefully constructed bridge between his experience and expertise and this new passion for sustainability. We used various tools to bring his voice forward in a way that would not disrupt his current business. We started a blog for him, in which he shared the story of the Third World trip and his awakening to the importance of responsibility to natural resources. We began a program of intentionally introducing new language to his repertoire. He began to casually mention his passion for sustainability to key colleagues and peers. He started attending key events in impact investing on his own time and telling friends, colleagues and blog readers about his learning. He also began personally contributing to and supporting companies that were leading the way in a manner that aligned with his values. Subtly and slowly, we brought his passion forward, allowing his voice to become louder. Soon, he began linking to his personal blog on sustainability and impact investing issues on his business email.

Eighteen months later, Richard was actively serving on the boards of two high-profile companies in impact investing, and his blog had a tremendous following. He was asked to comment on an article in Harvard Business Review on the topic of value in creating communities that focus on sustainable practices. Richard found himself living in a space that felt more authentic and intentional in his life and legacy.

THE AUTHORITY ON PERSONAL BRANDINGWHAT CEOs SAY ABOUT LIDA360
"Lida has developed the personal branding work for industry leaders I know and myself. She is also the person I trusted to help the founder of one of our companies be positioned as a leading expert in her industry. Through her I learned that my personal brand is not what I think of me, it is what my audience and constituents think of me. I have worked with her to make sure my message, my process and results are in alignment with my objectives."Kevin Custer, CEO, Arc Capital DevelopmentFOR OUR VETERANS
Lida offers a free webinar for career transition.LIDA'S PERSONAL BRANDING BLOG
For tips, information and ideas to build and market your personal brand, visit Lida's blog.